Wednesday, July 28, 2010

What We Made



Tracy Moore Doing a Demo

In this post I will show you some of the books made by the participants in a Small Studio Productions Workshop July 16, 17 and 18.

Shaun Sheehan was a model of skill, productivity and experimentation, making highly accomplished pieces in our 3 days.


The wheel on this fabulous journal spins. She engineered the attachments that allow it to do so.


She brought this soft, sewn and embellished journal cover with her to class. It was inspired by a post/tutorial Tracy's wife Teesha put up on her blog.

http://teeshascircus.blogspot.com/2010/04/free-fabric-journal-workshop-video.html



Shaun's book ring.






Mike Meador is the proprietor of Coffee Break designs and an aficionado of Micro-Mark miniature power tools. To build his journal he utilized a mini drill press to create multiple holes. An antique camera lens is incorporated into the cover of this "I Spy" journal.

http://www.coffeebreakdesign.com/

http://www.micromark.com/


For us lucky workshop participants, Mike had daily Coffee Break Design giveaways, including the tiny 1 inch metal ruler Shaun made into a ring. He was our official go to guy, if we needed some arcane or specialist tool. Mike has a quirky and slightly naughty sense of humor that is evident in class and his line of stencils.



Books ranged from mid-size (generally 5 x 7 inches) to fairly tiny in class. My fingers are in this photograph of two of Nancy Fuimera's small books to give an idea of scale. Yes, in case you were wondering, the pointer arrow does spin.



PJ Dutton made this sweet small book complete with a small side closure.



Lisa Gendron played with the MAPP ( MethylAcetylene-Propadiene Propane) gas torch to achieve the lovely colors on the cover of this bird journal.



John Smallenburg also used the MAPP gas torch to get a finish that looked a lot like abalone on his copper cover. He made a lot of hole and did a lot of sewing to attach his leather. The holes, I learned from experience are time consuming as each hole needs to be deburred by hand so as to not cut into the waxed polyester cord you are using to hand sew.

I think the circular piece seen on this cover is a beautifully re-purposed antique brass doorbell.


Lastly we come to the two books I finished in class. This larger one uses the disassembled leaves of a vegetable steamer basket to hide.....


the license plate number one. John Smallenburg gifted me with the license plate number. This project evolved significantly from inception to completion. My guess is that Passages one will eventually be followed by a book two.... eventually.


The back side of book one incorporated a leather coat pocket to house the small book in which I took class notes.


Somehow, several of the class members got to talking about 4-H experiences growing up. Tracy Moore raised hogs as part of 4-H, going as far as to exhibit at State Fair. That discussion and having a small 4-H chicken pin in my stash of assorted oddments brought along for inspiration spurred me to produce my small 4-H Chick book.

From the pure skill level I became much more comfortable with making and using rivets as fasteners and learned a different bookbinding technique. I got to spend a long weekend in the company of some pretty amazingly creative people and witness some really fine problem solving.

Tracy noted how pleased he was with the class. He remarked on how different each and every finished product was and how much they reflected the distinct personality of the individual artist.

Small Studio Productions will be hosting a workshop a month through November, with a different artist each month. It makes me wish Avon Lake, Ohio wasn't so far away.

http://www.smallstudioproductions.com/Workshopseries/index.html



Carina

3 comments:

  1. carina, that looks like it was so much fun...i love books, too...especially the mini variety ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Translation of Chinese

    Chi Yin Yi fire said ...

    This is nothing but smooth fall that does not die and get up again

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great pics of the projects. Looks like so much fun

    ReplyDelete